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Naukrigulf, a leading jobsite in the Middle East market, has made its platform more user-friendly and comprehensive for job seekers with Microsoft AI and data powered language translation solutions. The AI translator deployed by Microsoft has made the website multilingual for global users, thereby helping employers and job-seekers to explore the platform with ease and seize greater opportunities.

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Naukrigulf attracts thousands of employers and job seekers interested to work in the Gulf region. With most of the users being fluent either in Arabic or English, the content on the portal needed to be available in the job seeker’s preferred language. The implementation of Microsoft’s Arabic language translator has eliminated the language barrier that existed amongst the job seekers and employers.

The AI and data powered translator has opened countless doors for job seekers to search for the right prospects. On the other hand, it has given companies access to a larger pool of talent that was earlier not visible to them. The deployment is providing a quick turnaround at a lesser cost, and leading to a substantially enhanced consumer base for Naukrigulf.

Sharad Sindhwani, Senior Vice President & Product Head for Naukrigulf said,

Naukrigulf.com has been a pioneer in adopting technology to offer improved experience to all the users.  We regularly evaluate the needs of our customers and work towards building solutions that optimize job search and recruitment processes. With Microsoft Translator Text API, the language gaps that existed amongst the forum and its users have been filled and the portal has more tangible approach now. With this technology we have cut down almost half of the cost and we are very happy with accuracy of the automated translation.

Rajesh Rege, Country GM & India Lead – Clouds, Solution & Customer Success, Microsoft India said

Microsoft is committed towards aiding businesses optimize their processes and enhance their customer experience. The AI powered translator will enable Microsoft and Naukrigulf.com to achieve their unified vision of empowering the end users by enabling them to seamlessly connect, browse and exchange data. By leveraging this technology, we aim towards dissolving any form of language barriers that might exist amongst the job seekers and employers.

Microsoft is relentlessly working towards making technology accessible and productive for all, irrespective of the language they may speak or read. This is one of the examples of Microsoft’s efforts on local language computing and using the power of AI to improve the lives of people around the world.

Info Edge India Ltd., the parent company of Naukrigulf.com, Naukri.com, 99acres, & jeevansaathi, has dynamically leveraged data and AI solutions from Microsoft to streamline their workload and bring in superior quality services for its customers across the globe.

|In: Technology|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

The Times of India, India’s most read daily announced the launch of a new weekly page called Times Techies.  As the name suggests, it is a page for and by technologists. The page will focus on emerging technologies like Artificial Intelligence [AI], Machine Learning, Internet-of-Things [IoT], Blockchain, Cloud, and Robotic Process Automation [RPA], which collectively and dramatically are changing our world in ways that are sometimes difficult to foresee.

The page is for techies to understand how these technologies could improve their companies’ operations and customer engagement, and create new revenue streams. It is also for students and youngsters in the engineering and technology fields to understand how they could build their capabilities in these areas. One section will also highlight the phenomenal, globally impactful work tech centres in India are doing,

The inaugural issue brings to you an article by Amazon’s CTO Werner Vogels on how AI has become affordable and easy-to-use even for small firms. It advises young engineers on how to go about a career in AI. It also features the story of Mercedes-Benz’s engineers in India who have developed gesture controls for the 2019 model cars.

Entrepreneurs Rohan Narayana Murty and Arjun Narayan write on technology that they would like to see in the near future. Sunil Agarwal and Ian Baker have created a brilliant cartoon. The Times of India will have most of these columns every week, and new columns as we hear from you. Readers can share their feedback online with #TimesTechies.

IGiven that technology is thriving the most in Bengaluru and Hyderabad, it is being launched in these two cities first.

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RailYatri, India’s favourite multi-modal intercity transportation network has launched its branded IntrCity SmartBus on Bengaluru~Chennai route. The company recently launched IntrCity Smartbus service on some popular routes starting from Delhi to Lucknow, Kanpur, Shimla, Chandigarh, Amritsar, Ludhiana, Jalandhar and Manali which became an instant hit. RailYatri is projecting the IntrCity SmartBus model as a powerful substitute for the trains and a convenient mode of transport for the modern-day budget traveler.

IntrCity promises to deliver on its four core virtues – Timeliness, Trained Professional Drivers, Safety and Hassle-Free Boarding Assistance. In fact, the company is taking a step further and promising a 50% refund if the scheduled departure gets delayed by more than 30 minutes. Their unique ‘Flexi-ticket’ feature allows users to change their travel even at the last minute.

Speaking more about the ‘flexi-ticket’ feature, RailYatri’s Co-founder Kapil Raizada said

While conceptualizing, we figured out that ‘last minute change in plan’ is one of the biggest pain point for the passengers. This is usually followed by cancellation and refund related hassles, multiple follow-ups, etc. We devised a unique solution – gave them the flexibility to change their travel plan at the last hour. IntrCity SmartBus passengers can avail this facility up to 60 minutes before the scheduled departure of their bus.

Bengaluru-Chennai happens to be one of the busiest routes in this region and with the launch of IntrCity SmartBus on this route, we are sure we’ll be able to solve commuting problems for the millennial – working professionals, SME businessmen, students and most importantly women.

Like RailYatri’s other IntrCity SmartBuses, the ones plying between Bangalore and Chennai will also feature train like comfortable berths, free Wi-Fi, on-board entertainment, real-time online streaming of live location, CCTV feed, clean linen, mineral water to name a few.

Manish Rathi, CEO & Co-founder, RailYatri said

The inter-city bus travel in this region is better organized than other regions but still lacked what the millennial of this city needs. Current bus aggregators were not able to solve regular commuters’ issues like on-time departure, convenient boarding and drop-off points, flexibility to change plans at the last hour. We thought of solving these issues and thus created a hassle-free, dependable ecosystem which is affordable, convenient and safe. You can book your bus seat and travel on the same day – all within just a few clicks!

IntrCiry SmartBus can be booked through RailYatri App or RailYatri Website.

|In: Interviews|Last Updated: | 1 Comment

Technology is changing at a rapid pace, whether it is related to mobiles, servers, memory devices, etc. There is an increased level of importance given to the performance & computation power involved with the components used in those devices. As per a report by eMarketer, close to 491 million people in India would own a smartphone by the end of 2022. Smartphones that are priced within the sub 20K range also come loaded with AI-enabled features, excellent performance, varied camera setup, and more to capture the best shots.

Whether it is a hand-held device like a mobile phone or an enterprise device/technology like a server [cloud-based or local], performance is always given a top priority. However, achieving top-notch performance might come at the risk of higher power consumption and this factor becomes more critical in battery-powered devices. Technology companies are tirelessly working on improving the storage memory since faster read-write speeds would equate to better performance. HDD [Hard Disk Drive] is slowly being replaced with SSD [Solid State Drive] in laptops, tablets, and other device categories where there is frequent R/W access. Solid state addresses the I/O [Input/Output] bottlenecks for companies of all sizes. Mobile phone manufacturers are slowly switching from traditional eMMC [Embedded Multimedia Card] to UFS [Universal Flash Storage] since UFS offers more benefits over eMMC. When it comes to storage, Western Digital [WD] is one company that has a wide product portfolio for end-consumers, mobile manufacturers, as well as enterprises.

Today, about 45% of world’s data is stored on Western Digital devices. In India alone, there are about 4 lakh retail outlets which sell WD and SanDisk products. WD is a 20 billion dollar company which came together over a series of M&A that has taken place since the last 5~6 years. We recently had an opportunity to interact with Dr. Siva Sivaram, Executive Vice-President of Western Digital during his brief visit to India. The discussion revolved around the changing technology trends in storage, WD in India, etc. Below are some of the excerpts from the interaction that we had with Dr. Siva Sivaram.

Can you give some top-level insights about Western Digital ?

First & foremost, we think of ourselves as a data infrastructure company. All the major mobile players use storage by WD, be it eMMC or UFS. As far as the company positioning is concerned, WD is uniquely positioned to deliver the possibilities of data today and well into the future. The company has the broadest and deepest portfolio of HDD & Flash-based solutions. It has consistently delivered breakthrough technology innovations in the areas of 64- layer 3D NAND, 96-layer 3D NAND, Microwave Assisted Magnetic Recording [MAMR]. MAMR will enable a new class of ultra-high capacity enterprise HDDs designed to meet the future demands of Big Data.

WD is committed to open compute architectures and RISC-V. RISC-V will accelerate the development of data-centric devices and systems for Big Data, Fast Data & general-purpose applications. As far as India is concerned, it is an important & strategic country for WD since there is a growing talent pool and there is tremendous growth for WD & SanDisk products in India.

A lot of phone manufacturers are shifting from eMMC to UFS. Is UFS going to replace eMMC completely or will there be a gradual decline of eMMC?

The forward speculation on standards conversion is a hazardous game. In the enterprise segment, we talked about Serial Advanced Technology Attachment [SATA] fading for a long time, and it did not go away. We talked about SAAS going away and it is still running around strong. We talked about PCI adoption, which was going to happen so quickly. It did happen dramatically, it was much later than we expected it to happen.

Dr. Siva Sivaram – Executive Vice President, Western Digital

We have these three tiers that we are talking about, MCPs, eMMC, & the latest entrant UFS. We are all betting that UFS is going to happen. But I cannot tell you how it’s going to happen, though it might take a few years before eMMC completely fazes out. I don’t think PCI is going to happen but UFS is surely going to happen.

Do you foresee mid-segment manufacturers moving to UFS ?

It will happen, but not anytime soon. We do expect that given the benchmark set by Apple & Samsung, given the amount of memory that needs to go into overtime, the MCP market will go down, the eMMC market will split. More high-end devices will have UFS and slowly the mid-segment devices will start to taper down.

With the advent of 5G, what type of products can we expect from WD ?

I don’t truly believe 5G volume is happening anytime this year. The mobile market, in general, will have to go through new product migration cycle. 5G will definitely have a huge impact on automotive products, surveillance, AI, smart cities, etc. There’s a lot of growth everywhere.

We thank Dr. Siva for his time and sharing the insights with our readers. If you have any questions for WD team, please leave them in the comments section…

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Call for Code 2019 is an annual challenge build by IBM in association with David Clark Cause for developers to build cutting edge technologies to deal with Natural Disaster. In Year 2018, 100k+ developer participated with more than 2500+ application created, 7100+ events live streamed and more than 40+ celebrity support. Call for Code is a program to develop and promote Open Source Technology to solve world biggest challenges.

Technology can travel where people cannot

Unmanned aerial vehicles [UAVs], drowns shows great potential to transform humanitarian aid. Using this technology, organizations can map affected areas with greater precise , assess damage in real time, increase situational awareness through high-resolution mapping and deliver items faster, cheaper and more efficiently. Infrared cameras and advanced listening systems enable UAVs to uncover survivors from rubble or among flames and live-stream night footage, increasing the success of critical rescue efforts.

Impact Of Natural Disaster and Need of Technology

  • 2018 Natural Disaster since year 2010. This mean each year 336 natural disaster did happened since then
  • 882 floods and 525 storms took place between end of year 2010 and 2015.
  • 139 Million People are affected by Natural Disaster on average basis
  • 72,205 people are killed on average by Natural Disaster every year.

It is interesting to note, How Technology paved path and made the presence felt during all these years in situation of Natural Disaster. Some of them are

  1. Robots and Drones helped to locate and transmit information about survivors to the emergency response team
  2. Multiple Mobile Applications which allows Emergency Response Team, The Survivor to communicate even when there is no network.

The U.S Geological Team is developing a system to provide Early Warning in case of Earthquake.

Developers across globe have changed the way people think and act. Call For Code aims to provide solutions which inform people about the change in climate or any event taking place in their region; Help the response team with accurate navigation for quick and timely delivery of support, Easy mechanism for medical services delivery provided aftermath of disaster; AI based Chatbots which can allow all stakeholders to communicate even if there is no network etc. When most people see the challenges, developers look at possibilities to solve a problem. They have done and they are still there to do it.

Call for Code extend warm invitations to all coders located anywhere on the Globe to come forward and solve the problems which are damaging and destroying the humanity.

IBM provides all necessary resources, tool kit and products through which one can easily solve problems related to Natural Disaster. Right from Artificial Intelligence which can used to create a mobile app for timely weather updates to improved logistic, pizza delivery etc.

To Participate, Here is all you need to do:

  • Create Your IBM Id and join the challenge. Click On the link https://cloud.ibm.com/registration
  • Use the available resources to code with six patterns, six areas of Natural Disaster and Health and mark your presence.
  • Don’t just end with code, work with mentors, other developers and build a community of change.
  • Go ahead and submit your code with Demo. Don’t forget to submit it without proper description and agree to participant agreement.

Don’t wait and click on the link. Competition ends on July 29, 2019.

Remember, If your Solution is really an inspirational one and solve the issue of Natural Disaster or Health, you can be lucky enough to get recognized by IBM with a cash reward USD $2,00,000 and lot more.

For more information, click on https://developer.ibm.com/callforcode/

Be the change you wish to see in the world . Let us all come forward and save every life.

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Established in 2014, Forward – Goldmine’s digital arm, has won the Social Media mandate in a multi-agency pitch and will service Bank of Baroda, India’s second largest public sector bank for another 3 years starting April 2019 across creative, media and ORM-led services.

Forward has launched the bank’s various digital platforms in 2016 and has helped Bank of Baroda connect with a new audience and push its new digital banking products. The agency has also assisted the bank leverage its partnerships with multiple events across the country.

Commenting on this development, O K Kaul, General Manager, Marketing, Corporate Communications & WMS of Bank of Baroda said

We are delighted to extend our association with Goldmine as our social media partner. Thanks to their strategic insights, digital expertise, in-depth knowledge of the category, our visibility online is very strong today. The campaigns they have created and executed have helped us establish a good digital footprint within the banking sector.

Being a technologically strong Bank, we particularly appreciate that Forward has deployed QuickMetrix, a strong social analytics and management software that supports all digital activities with relevant data.

To this, Aastha Singla, Co-founder, Forward, Goldmine said

Servicing Bank of Baroda has always been a learning experience for us. Given the current dynamics, the next three years seem crucial especially with the three way amalgamation of Bank of Baroda, Vijaya Bank and Dena Bank, making it a financial powerhouse. With a positive outlook, we look forward to the challenges and opportunities that come in the near future.

From the onset, Forward deployed QuickMetrix [India’s leading Social Media Listening and ORM software] for a strong technology platform to manage the Bank’s online presence across social platforms.

Pleased with this extension, Surendra S. Baliga, Co-founder – QuickMetrix, said

It is a matter of great pride for us that Bank of Baroda has deployed QuickMetrix since 2016 and has chosen to do so for the next three years. We have learnt a lot from Bank of Baroda and QuickMetrix will continue to evolve to serve India’s second largest Public Sector Bank.

QuickMetrix is integrated with the Bank’s internal systems to build a seamless experience for its customers’ service requests originating from social media.

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Ultra Rich Match, one of the most trusted exclusive matrimony brand for the elite class, launched its mobile app on iOS & Android, to further facilitate their beau monde clientele to monitor their prospective matches anytime, anywhere.

The most notable feature of this App is that profiles are visible only to the verified users! Once you download the App, their Relationship Manager shall call to verify your eligibility. After completing registration and payment, they do complete background verification and also send a team to personally visit every clientele within India before giving access to the App. Also there is no contact information available on the App. Their Relationship Managers take your interest & give feedback’s via calls/emails only.

This is, infact, more of a tracking Application rather than an interactive application, for their Ultra Rich members.

  • Keep track of all matching profiles in one place
  •  Review each profile at your own pace
  •  Keep check on your current status with any profile
  •  Shortlist the ones you like
  •  View 100% verified prospects only
  •  Keep your details discreet and confidential
  •  Get connected to people across the globe

Saurabh Goswami, Director of Ultra Rich Weddings Pvt Ltd, said

Ours is a unique App for a unique clientele. It stresses on Confidentiality, Exclusivity, Simplicity and Security, which are also our company values. With this App, we see ourselves reaching out to each and every Ultra Rich family across globe, who are looking out for their perfect partner.

The Ultra Rich Match app for Android & iOS can be downloaded from here & here respectively.

About Ultra Rich Match

Ultra Rich Match is a brand of Ultra Rich Weddings Private Ltd, an ISO 9001:2015 certified company. Ultra Rich Match specializes in catering to the business Families / top notch professionals across many countries, communities & ages. While, their Business clientele comprises of Industrialists, Manufacturers, Celebrities, Listed Company Owners etc, they also offer exclusive services to the ‘Young Achievers’. This segment includes bright minds from the premier colleges with highest salaries amongst their peer. The ‘Young Achiever’ members also include young entrepreneurs, upcoming media personalities, sportspersons, doctors, and lawyers, IAS and IPS Officers, Politicians etc.

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Zendesk, Inc. announced it acquired Smooch Technologies Holdings ULC, the Montreal-based company behind Smooch, a platform connecting businesses with customers to power more personalized and human conversations. The acquisition marks Zendesk’s next step in delivering the best omnichannel experiences by connecting conversations between businesses and customers on any messaging channel – from websites and mobile apps to the world’s leading messaging apps like WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger.

Mikkel Svane, Zendesk founder, CEO & Chairman, said

We live in a messaging-centric world, and customers expect the convenience and interactivity of messaging to be part of their experiences. As long-time partners with Smooch, we know first hand how much they have advanced the conversational experience to bring together all forms of messaging and create a continuous conversation between customers and businesses.

More than 75 percent [Source] of all smartphone users now use messaging apps such as WhatsApp. Smooch is one of the largest providers of WhatsApp Business integration, and through Zendesk’s early access program, companies can now reach WhatsApp’s 1.5 billion users to manage service interactions and engage with customers directly through Zendesk Chat. This marks the continued expansion of Zendesk’s integration with the WhatsApp Business API into The Zendesk Suite.

Create a consistent conversational experience

Businesses struggle to manage the rapidly increasing number of customer inquiries across a variety of disparate channels. Smooch is the only messaging solution pulling in all customer conversations across web, mobile, and social messaging into a cohesive interface no matter what the channel is. As an API and SDK-based development platform built on AWS, Smooch’s acquisition furthers Zendesk’s commitment to an open, flexible CRM that businesses can harness to build and offer differentiated customer experiences.

Warren Levitan, Co-founder & CEO of Smooch, said

With their launch of Sunshine last year, Zendesk took the bold and disruptive step required to compete for and win the future of CRM. The decision to combine forces with Zendesk and help further their CRM strategy will allow us to supercharge our existing mission for building the best customer experiences. We are thrilled to be joining the entire Zendesk team, so many of whom we have had the pleasure to work with over the past three-and-a-half years.

Together, Zendesk and Smooch will drive the next wave of connected conversations on a variety of messaging channels, including WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, LINE, WeChat, Telegram, Twitter DM, Viber, Kakao Talk, SMS text, RCS and through native web iOS and Android apps. For example, with these expanded capabilities, an online retailer could seamlessly manage an issue with an incorrect shipment or return that starts on social messaging like WhatsApp and shifts to its own native messaging experience in one continuous, informed thread within Zendesk.

In addition to product enhancements, Zendesk announced a Conversation Solutions Team, which will support businesses seeking to leverage Smooch’s best-in-class conversation platform to craft personalized messaging experiences. This team can deliver customized messaging applications such as a global hotel brand that provides customers with a premium, omnichannel guest experience through the ability to message hotel staff on property in real-time for any needs across a range of messaging platforms.

Empower a collaborative, cross-functional team

Businesses know that the need to connect and collaborate in real-time is critical, and Slack is the preferred communications channel for business. To provide the best experience and service, customer-facing employees need the ability to pull in subject matter experts quickly and easily. Zendesk announced the general availability of Side Conversations for Slack.

Side Conversations empowers teams to work seamlessly together with other departments or partners outside the company without leaving Zendesk. This is especially critical for sales and support who frequently work together to solve and prioritize customer issues. With Zendesk Sell and Support integration, service and sales teams can quickly partner to develop joint solutions with full customer context.

Suite expansion with new integrations

To make great customer experience accessible to everyone, Zendesk launched The Suite in 2018, and it quickly became the company’s most successful product launch ever, driving a 400 percent increase in our customers adopting omnichannel solutions. A core part of The Suite’s success is its robust and growing Zendesk Marketplace, which is expanding with the addition of new Suite Ready partners including Atlassian, Lessonly, Maestro, Stella, Tymeshift, Geckoboard, Statuspage and Ada. These integrations help businesses improve their customer experience [CX] operations in a variety of ways, including training and managing their workforce, tracking KPIs and goals, and monitoring their tickets for quality assurance.